A Message from the PrincipalPrincipalDear Parents and Families,We have so many things coming up during the month of May! We had a Reading Parent Workshop recently for parents and I encourage everyone to read to their children nightly and to check out the free website. Students will be taking the Fountas and Pinnell Reading Assessments this month and second grade students will be taking the DRA Assessments. Reading to them each night will support them with reading.

We will be having field trips for all grades. Please be sure to return the permission slips back in a timely fashion when they go out.

The BOK program has been a huge success and students who are participating absolutely love it! It is a terrific way to get ready for school, get exercise and be alert for school. If you are interested, please speak with Tiffany Godbout and Glen Boisvert, the Coordinators of BOK.

Please be mindful with the nice weather coming that vehicles are not allowed to park in the school parking lot or on the curb during school hours. I appreciate everyone's support ensuring that our students are safe.

We have all current events on our school website. I welcome everyone to attend our next Principal Coffee Hour, PTO meeting and SIT meeting. We look for parent input and it is very valued here at Pothier.

Happy Spring,Mrs. Celeste ContiSchool NewsPreschool NewsSpring has sprung and the preschool classes have enjoyed learning about the signs of spring. During the month of May preschool students will be learning about bugs and insects through many different fun and interesting activities. The children will be listening to stories about bugs and insects, participating in arts and crafts activities and will learn through sensory and movement activities. We will learn how butterflies develop by observing how caterpillars turn into butterflies. We are excited for all the fun we have ahead of us during the month of May!Kindergarten News

Hard to believe it’s already May. This month in Reading Workshop we will be learning about Fiction and Non-Fiction. In Eureka Math, the students will be working on Number bonds and will continue to practice numbers 1 to 10. Please continue to work on letters, sight words and numbers with your child at home. Please have your child read for at least 15 minutes every night. We are looking forward to another great month!First Grade News

Spring is an exciting time in first grade!! We have been working hard to increase our reading levels to be ready for second grade. We have also begun learning about life cycles, insects, and plants!! Some of our first grades even have duck eggs!! We will all be eagerly awaiting their arrival! Teachers and students have also been working hard on earning Panda Points. Please remember to send your child to school everyday and bring in their homework. Each child receives points for these things! Thank you from the first grade!!Second Grade NewsGrade 2 has been working extremely hard this month ! In math we are moving on from addition and subtraction to working with arrays, which is an introduction to multiplication. Also in the month of May, second graders at Governor Pothier Elementary will take the required state reading test, DRA2, so it is imperative that all students read 15-20 minutes a night to improve both fluency and comprehension skills. Keep up the great work second grade!Parent Corner20 Reasons Why Playing Outdoors Makes Children Smarter

Outdoor play is a multi-sensory activity.While outdoors, children will see, hear, smell and touch things unavailable to them when they play inside. They use their brains in unique ways as they come to understand these new stimuli.

Playing outside brings together informal play and formal learning. Children can incorporate concepts they have learned at school in a hands-on way while outdoors. For example, seeing and touching the roots of a tree will bring to life the lesson their teacher taught about how plants get their nutrients.

Playing outdoors stimulates creativity. Robin Moore, an expert in the design of play and learning environments, says, “Natural spaces and materials stimulate children’s limitless imagination and serve as the medium of inventiveness and creativity.” Rocks, stones and dirt present limitless opportunities for play that can be expressed differently every time a child steps outside.

Playing outdoors is open-ended. There is no instruction manual for outdoor play. Children make the rules and in doing so use their imagination, creativity, intelligence and negotiation skills in a unique way.

Playing in nature reduces anxiety. Time spent outside physiologically reduces anxiety. Children bring an open mind and a more relaxed outlook back inside when they are in more traditional learning environments.

Outdoor play increases attention span. Time spent in unstructured play outdoors is a natural attention builder. Often children who have difficulty with pen and paper tasks or sitting still for long periods of times are significantly more successful after time spent outside.

Outdoor play is imaginative. Because there are no labels, no pre-conceived ideas and no rules, children must create the world around them. In this type of play, children use their imagination in ways they don’t when playing inside.

Being in nature develops respect for other living things. Children develop empathy, the ability to consider other people’s feeling, by interacting with creatures in nature. Watching a tiny bug, a blue bird or a squirrel scurrying up a tree gives children the ability to learn and grow from others.

Outdoor play promotes problem solving. As children navigate a world in which they make the rules, they must learn to understand what works and what doesn’t, what lines of thinking bring success and failure, how to know when to keep trying and when to stop.

Playing outside promotes leadership skills. In an environment where children create the fun, natural leaders will arise. One child may excel at explaining how to play the game, while another may enjoy setting up the physical challenge of an outdoor obstacle course. All types of leadership skills are needed and encouraged.

Outdoor play widens vocabulary. While playing outdoors, children may see an acorn, a chipmunk and cumulous clouds. As they encounter new things, their vocabulary will expand in ways it never could indoors.

Playing outside improves listening skills. As children negotiate the rules of an invented game, they must listen closely to one another, ask questions for clarification and attend to the details of explanations in ways they don’t have to when playing familiar games.

Being in nature improves communication skills. Unclear about the rules in an invented game? Not sure how to climb the tree or create the fairy house? Children must learn to question and clarify for understanding while simultaneously making themselves understood.

Outdoor play encourages cooperative play. In a setting where there aren’t clear winners and losers, children work together to meet a goal. Perhaps they complete a self-made obstacle course or create a house for a chipmunk. Together they compromise and work together to meet a desired outcome.

Time in nature helps children to notice patterns. The natural world is full of patterns. The petals on flowers, the veins of a leaf, the bark on a tree are all patterns. Pattern building is a crucial early math skill.

Playing outdoors helps children to notice similarities and differences. The ability to sort items and notice the similarities and differences in them is yet another skill crucial to mathematical success. Time outdoors affords many opportunities for sorting.

Time spent outdoors improves children’s immune systems. Healthy children are stronger learners. As children spend more and more time outdoors, their immune systems improve, decreasing time out of school for illness.

Outdoor play increases children’s physical activity level. Children who play outdoors are less likely to be obese and more likely to be active learners. Children who move and play when out of school are ready for the attention often needed for classroom learning.

Time spent outdoors increases persistence. Outdoor games often require persistence. Children must try and try again if their experiment fails. If the branch doesn’t reach all the way across the stream or the bark doesn’t cover their fairy house, they must keep trying until they are successful.

PTO NewsSaturday, May 14th... Please join us for a Luau Party, at Pothier School from 4pm-7pm.

COMEFUN!JOINFUN!US!FUN!Also, there will be a PTO meeting Tuesday, May 10th at 5:30 in the library at Pothier. All are welcome and encouraged to come!House NewsDonate a dollar to the school and wear your Panda Pride house color!Wednesday, May 11th & 25th.